Our Staff

Staff can be reached using the main number (800) 521-9550 or (401) 274-9548 and their extension as listed.

Dr. Maria F. Pacheco, Principal Investigator

Maria_Pachecobrown.edu
Phone: x274

Maria F. Pacheco is principal investigator and co-director of the New England Equity Assistance Center (NEEAC) at The Education Alliance at Brown University. With more than 30 years of experience in urban schools and higher education, Dr. Pacheco specializes in culturally responsive pedagogy, second language acquisition, and cognitive development.

Dr. Pacheco has worked as a public school teacher, a bilingual director, migrant education supervisor, and civil rights specialist for the Massachusetts Department of Education. Since 1992 she has directed and taught in Brown University’s master's program in ESL Education and Cross-Cultural Studies. She joined the NEEAC in 1996 and became the director in 1997. She has held faculty positions at multiple institutions of higher education across New England, and at the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem, Israel.

Dr. Pacheco has worked extensively in the areas of culturally responsive curriculum; equitable instructional practices; and the development, implementation, and evaluation of Lau plans. A certified trainer of Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment, she has trained hundreds of teachers in this model, aimed at helping children who are struggling learners to develop effective learning strategies. As a practitioner/scholar, she is the co-author of several texts on culturally responsive teaching, including Leading With Diversity: Cultural Competencies for Teacher Preparation and Professional Development and The Teacher’s Guide to Diversity: Building a Knowledge Base.

Dr. Pacheco holds master's degrees in Bilingual/Bicultural Education and in School Administration and a doctorate in Leadership in Schooling from the University of Massachusetts. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and French.

Sara Smith

Sara_Smithbrown.edu
Phone: x289

Sara Smith is co-director of the New England Equity Assistance Center. Over the past 30 years her experience has included teaching or administration in public, community-based, and higher education, both in the United States and abroad. She specializes in second language acquisition, culturally responsive pedagogy, adolescent literacy, and effective classroom practice for teachers of English language learners (ELLs).

Ms. Smith has taught in elementary, secondary, adult, undergraduate, and graduate settings. For the past ten years she has worked with the Equity and Diversity programs for The Education Alliance at Brown University, helping schools and districts across New England to develop both school policy and teaching practice that successfully engage ELLs in mastering academic content while they learn English. As an adjunct lecturer at Brown University, she teaches graduate-level courses in theories of language acquisition, applied linguistics for English as a second language, literacy for language minority students, and culturally responsive curriculum development.

Ms. Smith received a master’s degree in ESL Education and Cross Cultural Studies from Brown University. She holds Rhode Island teaching certification in the elementary and middle grades with an endorsement in English as a second language. She is a certified trainer in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, and a co-author and certified trainer for two of the Massachusetts Department of Education professional development units for teachers of ELLs.

Phyllis R. Hardy

Phyllis_Hardybrown.edu
Phone: x317

Phyllis Hardy is an equity and diversity specialist for the New England Equity Assistance Center. She specializes in topics related to national origin—specifically, second language acquisition, culture reciprocity, effective classroom practice for teachers of English language learners (ELLs), and bilingual special education.

A native of Puerto Rico, she received her bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and her master’s degree in Special Education from Boston College. She holds Massachusetts teaching certifications in elementary education, bilingual education, and special education.

Her career has included positions as an educational consultant on special education, bilingual education, early childhood, and NAEYC accreditation; a special education team evaluation coordinator for an early childhood department; a bilingual special education teacher in bilingual resource rooms and classrooms; a bilingual elementary teacher in the Transitional Bilingual Education program; and a teacher of kindergarten and preschool programs.

Through her work with districts in New England, Ms. Hardy helps educators build an understanding of their increasingly diverse school communities, second language acquisition, culture reciprocity, and assessment practices to help distinguish learning difficulties from learning disabilities for ELLs. She has made presentations on bilingual special education topics at regional and national conferences and at private and public schools.

Randy Ross

Randy_Rossbrown.edu
Phone: x272

Randy Ross is an equity specialist at the New England Equity Assistance Center. She is responsible for technical assistance, training, policy development, and other initiatives in the areas of gender equity, cultural competence, and school climate, including social-emotional learning, bullying/harassment, and Positive Behavior Support. A major focus of her work currently is supporting school districts in implementing a comprehensive policy to reduce bullying and harassment within school communities.

Ms. Ross has taught, trained, or served as an administrator at all levels of schooling—from early childhood to post-graduate. She has been an adjunct instructor at several colleges in Massachusetts and Connecticut. For over five years, Ms. Ross worked for the Attorney General of New Jersey in the Office of Bias Crime and Community Relations, where she provided diversity training for schools, law enforcement, and community organizations. She also initiated and served as coordinator for New Jersey Cares About Bullying, a statewide, state-sponsored campaign. In addition, for nine years, she ran a business that developed and provided software for financial and student management in school districts.

Ms. Ross has made over 250 presentations to districts and at both state and national conferences. She has written numerous articles for magazines, journals, and newsletters. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley and earned an Master of Science degree in Educational Leadership from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City.

Donalda Silva

Donalda_Silvabrown.edu
Phone: x338

Donalda Silva is an equity and diversity specialist at the New England Equity Assistance Center. She is responsible for technical assistance in the area of parent involvement.

Mrs. Silva received a master’s degree from Boston University in Clinical Social Work, and she is certified in School Social Work/Adjustment Counseling (K–12) and Guidance Counseling (5–12). Throughout her professional career, she has always focused on equity and diversity issues. She works with school districts to increase their capacity to disseminate information equitably and to engage parents on topics of school choice, NCLB protocols, and parents’ rights.

Mrs. Silva combines her personal experience with her professional knowledge as an educator to reach English language learner (ELL) parents and educators. Since the beginning of her teaching career, as a language development specialist and later as a migrant program liaison, she has worked directly with ELL and migrant parents and school systems to bridge gaps, to build trust, and to impact ELL and migrant students.

As an ELL high school guidance counselor, Mrs. Silva experienced first hand the challenges of dropout prevention and increasing access to honors and advanced placement courses for ELLs. She brings awareness of the effectiveness in reducing dropouts by providing professional development to teachers and administrators in working with parents using strategies based on the strengths perspective model.

Mrs. Silva works closely with educators and ELL parents to increase school-parent collaboration and to enhance student achievement. She has made numerous presentations to districts and at state and national conferences on issues of diversity, second language acquisition and parent/school collaboration.